The strangest thing just happened. I called my sister’s cell phone (area code 313, prefix 715) and the first time I called it, something picked up immediately and said:
“You’ll mark the word SOON now.”
It did this three more times with other words starting with S (I don’t remember which words) and then hung up.
When I called the number back, it put me through to my sister.
I called from a saved contact on my phone, so I know I didn’t dial the wrong number. I assume I got some sort of crossed connection in the switching equipment somewhere. But does anyone know what sort of phone number answers with a request to write down four words and then hang up?
Don’t know. A Yahoo search brings up your OP followed, oddly enough, by a page with the lyrics to Urge Overkill’s cover of “Girl, You’ll be a Woman Soon.” The subsequent hits get progressively even more irrelevant from there.
The second thread includes a reference to this PDF file, which discusses an experiment called the Modified Rhyme Test on page 131. I just came across this link from the Public Safety Communications Research branch of the Dept. of Commerce, and I’m downloading their audio source files to see if it matches what I heard.
Update: Those sound files from the PSCR aren’t it – they say “Please select the word” – but I would bet what I heard was some form of Rhyme Test. Now the question is, who’s running it? Maybe the phone company to test line quality?
I tried calling that number. It’s apparently now an Apple sales/customer service line for government buyers. Following the instructions in the Reddit thread did not result in the code-speaking thingy described above.
Best guess, given the information provided - it’s some sort of tool designed to help speech-to-text AIs better associate spoken words with their written counterparts.
This happened to me yesterday!
i was trying to call my girlfriend in miami, im in atlanta right now on a work trip, sometime during the afternoon…
i was calling using my headphones in the park,…i do remember hearing the mans robotic voice…
i specifically remember him saying " youll mark the words shit please" …it freaked me out!
i made my roommate listen a little bit…
a womans robotic voice came on and she did the very same thing…
i wish i didnt hang up and listened more…
we joked about it being the other side of the line , some NSA logging thing…
id really love to know what the hell that was exactly! it seriously was disturbing!
also called a number i had already saved in my phone, so it wasnt a wrong dial…
My girlfriend heard everything i was saying on the other line but i couldnt hear her at all…
Question for you: Which cell phone company do you use? I’m wondering if this is something in the cell phone network equipment itself or if it’s somewhere else.
The seems like the most likely explanation - there is a method to test the line quality - using this modified rhyme test - and probably is usually activated with some sort of special number/key press/whatever.
Each company might have their own method of doing this. I used to spend my misspent youth as what one might term a phreaker - and came across many telephone company test lines, but nothing like this.
Interesting! I’ve been listening to the tapes of Evan Doorbell in recent months. Something about the clicks, clunks and beeps of the old network fascinates me.
The line quality test makes some sense, but I don’t understand why other people would report the swear words and references to violence, unless it’s some sort of dark in-joke among the techs.
